Factors Influencing Students' Choice to Study ...

ISSN 2277-0836; Volume 2, Issue 4, pp. 80-86; May, 2013.

Journal of Agriculture and Biodiversity Research ©2013 Online Research Journals Full Length Research Available Online at http://www.onlineresearchjournals.org/JABR

Factors Influencing Students’ Choice to Study Agricultural Science in South-South Nigeria Dr. F.M Onu (PhD)1 and *Michael E. Ikehi2 1

Vocational and Teacher Education Department, Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. Department of Vocational and Technical Education, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin-city, Nigeria.

2

Received 10 March, 2013

Accepted 29 May, 2013

This study focused on the factors influencing students’ choice to study agricultural science in Nigerian universities with South-South geopolitical zone as a case study. The study collected and analyzed the opinion of undergraduate students in order to understand the influencing factors. Three research questions guided this study and the study adopted the survey research design. Student’s questionnaire was administered to the sample to obtain their opinion. Findings revealed that government and societal poor view of agriculture in the country is an inhibiting factor to the increase in the number of students opting to study the course at the university level while the presence of other payable jobs in the zone is discouraging the youths from engaging in agricultural profession as a means of livelihood. The finding of this research is useful in understanding and addressing the youths’ behavior towards agriculture in the South-South Nigeria especially now that the country is refocusing her economy and agriculture remains her highest contributor to gross domestic product (GDP). In the light of the findings recommendations were made, such as the introduction of Agricultural Students Scholarship Fund (ASSF) to attract and encourage young school leavers into the profession. Key words: Agriculture, career choice, factors, Universities, South-South, Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION The importance of agriculture as a requirement for selfsufficiency, employment, and food supply to the individual, nation and the world at large cannot be over emphasized. Agriculture plays important role as the base of economic growth and development and revenue source for many countries, including Nigeria. One of the ingredients for accelerating agricultural development is the provision of adequate knowledge through education in the sector [1]. In previous years, leaders in successive governments in Nigeria had at various times good intentions and had strived to provide lasting solution to the problems confronting Agriculture and food production across the country. Famous programs such as Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) of 1976 and Green Revolution of 1982 were launched. These programmes were launched with the intention of providing sufficient food for the nation, creating awareness of the importance of agriculture, improving the economy and attracting young *Corresponding Author‟s E-Mail: [email protected].

Nigerians into agriculture. However, they recorded less success. The success of such programmes depended on the quality of agricultural science experts in the nation as well as the involvement of students of agricultural science at various levels of education, mostly at the secondary and post-secondary level [2]. Agricultural industries struggle annually to fill positions with qualified individuals [3,4]. This presumed shortage of qualified individuals in the sector does not go well for the future of what is thought by some as the nation‟s most important industry. During this research, it was observed that not many undergraduates of agriculture in the South-South Nigerian universities apply to study agricultural science as their first choice but as a last resort or deflection from other “professional” courses due to admission struggle. This indicates that there are inhibiting and promoting factors to the study of Agricultural science in universities in Nigeria. The factors influencing the choice of agricultural science in universities in Nigeria are numerous including family and friends influence, profession and job

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considerations [5]. Also, the choice of students to study agriculture is guided by the interest developed in the subject area at secondary school level. The interest when nurtured to university level, qualifies them to be trained as extension workers and graduate as a degree holder in any area of agricultural science [6]. Other factors ranges from gender, financial incentives/scholarship, parent‟s education level, teacher‟s teaching method(s) and teacher‟s personality, to societal value of the studied course [3]. These factors are further explained by learning theories of career. Social learning theory of career and decision making [7] explains how educational and occupational preferences and skills are acquired and how selection of course of study and occupation are made. The theory identifies the interactions of genetic factors (race), environmental conditions (social and economic forces), learning experiences (associative and instrumental) and performance (task) skills as career decision influencers. It is posited that each of these influencers play a part in all career decisions that are made. Different combinations of interaction of the influencers produce a multitude of different career choices that the individual makes [7]. Like in Agricultural science, students all over the world are usually faced with the task of career decision making [7,8]. The choice of subjects and courses to study in schools and subsequent paths of career to follow is always a problem needing guidance in prospective undergraduates [8]. To provide good guidance and encourage Nigerian youths to study agriculture in universities, there is the need to understand the factors and influencers that guides students‟ career choice. The problem of decreasing number of students opting to study any branch of agricultural science in universities in Nigeria can be resolved if only the factors influencing and affecting it as a study course and occupation is completely resolved.

Agricultural Science is rather a study course for the less intelligent and privileged thus a study course by chance rather than choice. The Nigerian government is giving little to the needs of Agriculture and its graduates. This is a big problem as the negligence has spread to the nongovernmental organizations in the country.

Statement of Problem

The study employed survey research design. A survey research design according to Eboh [11] is a field-based activity involving the first-hand collection of data from a sample audience that is intended to represent a bigger whole. The result from sample is used to generalize to the entire population [12]. Survey research design is suitable for this study because opinions from a group of undergraduate students were studied and used as data for analysis. The study was carried out at the University of Benin, Benin City, a famous first generation university in South-South Nigeria. Being the oldest (federal) university in the South-South with more number of departments in the faculty of agricultural science than other universities in the zone, University of Benin was considered for this study. The instrument used for data collection was a structured student questionnaire. The questionnaire was face validated by three experts; two from the Department of Crop science and Animal science in the faculty of Agriculture and one expert from the

Agriculture is a known profession in the South-South Nigeria and the largest employer of labour [9] in the country. Yet from observation, most people practicing it as a means of livelihood are often the old and uneducated youths. Which leaves the question „why are the educated youths in the South-South zone not studying and practicing agriculture as other professions are being studied and applied after school as a means of livelihood?‟. Statistics from 2006 to 2010 data of the Exams and Records Departments of the University of Benin showed a steady low number of prospective students who register for Agricultural science as their first-choice of study course at the university while other science receive high number of registrants [10]. Though Agriculture is a known profession, people often believe it to be a non-professional and less profitable career for a young graduate in Nigeria. It is also assumed that

Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to look at the factors influencing students‟ choice to study Agricultural science in Nigerian universities. Specifically, the study sought to: 1. Determine why Agricultural Science is not seen as a reputable science course of study for future career in the profession in South-South Nigeria. 2. Ascertain if Nigerian youths in South-South have negative feeling towards Agriculture and its science as a profession for livelihood. 3. Establish the hindrances to students‟ choice to study Agricultural science at the university. Research Questions The following research questions have been formulated to guide the course of this study: 1. Why is Agricultural science not seen as a reputable science course of study for future career in the profession? 2. Do Nigerian youths in South-South like Agriculture and its science as a profession for livelihood? 3. What are the hindrances to the students‟ choice of Agricultural science at the university level?

METHODOLOGY

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J Agric Biodivers Res

Table 1. Distribution of Respondents.

Faculty

Agriculture

Education

TOTAL

No. of questionnaire administered

No. of questionnaire responded to

Total number of respondents

VTE AEE ANS CRS SOS FOW FIS

70 60 100 60 60 60 80

70 60 100 60 60 60 80

70 60 100 60 60 60 80

Percentage responses (%) 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

7

490

490

490

100

Department

Department of Vocational and Technical Education in Faculty of Education. The reliability index was calculated which yielded an index of 0.81. Two research assistants assisted the researcher in distributing the questionnaire. Data was collected from Agricultural science students from the University of Benin (sample), considered to be representative of students in South-South universities in Nigeria, for generalization. A total of 490 students made up the sample size. The students that made up the sample, who are of different personal characteristics, are distributed over the 6 departments in the faculty of Agriculture and 1 department from the faculty of education. These are the departments in the University of Benin where Agricultural science is offered as a study. The sample size was proportionally achieved with respect to departmental size. Each member of the sample was purposively sampled. From the department of Animal Science (ANS) 100 students were drawn, 80 students from Fishery (FIS), 60 students from Agricultural Economics and Extension (AEE), 60 students from Crop Science (CRS), 60 students from Soil Science (SOS), 60 students from Forestry and Wildlife (FOW) and 70 students from Vocational and Technical Education (VTE), Agriculture Education section. All the 490 copies of the instrument administered were completed and returned representing 100% return rate. The data collected were analyzed using percentages. Item with a score of 50% and above was regarded acceptable while items less than 50% were rejected. Table 1 refers to the distribution of respondents and collection of questionnaire from respondents in various departments used for this research. Note: *All questions were drawn from a structured student

believes that Agriculture is a less reputable course of study for future career in the profession due to the tedious nature of its applied practical. 104 (21.2%) admitted that the lack of reputation is due to the lack of employment in the sector. While as high as 291 (59.4%) of the 490 (100%) students believe that lack of reputation of the science and career in the profession is due to poor wage or capital return in the Agricultural sector. Research question 2: Do Nigerian youths in SouthSouth like Agriculture and its science as a profession for livelihood? Table 3 indicates that a slightly higher number of the respondent (254, 51.8%) believes youths in Nigeria from the South-South geopolitical zone does feel negative towards agricultural profession as a means of livelihood while 236 of the respondents (48.2%) counter the idea. *Question; If YES, above state a possible reason? In Table 4, 35% (89) of the 254 respondents from Table 3 indicates that poor societal value of farmers in the country/zone is the reason why the youths feel negative towards agriculture as means of livelihood. 20 (7.9%) of the respondents believes it is personal dislike of agriculture as a profession while 14 (5.5%) of the respondents believe that other reasons are responsible for the negative feeling. 131 (51.6%) of the respondents believe that the presence of other payable jobs in the zone encourages the negative feeling towards agriculture and likely discouraging the practice of agriculture as a means of livelihood by youths in the South-South zone of Nigeria.

questionnaire that was administered to the sample. Research question 1: Why is Agricultural science not seen as a reputable science course of study for future career in the profession?

*Question; Do you think our government and society value and respect Agricultural Scientists/graduates the way they value and respect other sciences and their scientists/graduates?

In Table 2, 95 students (19.4%) of the 490 students

Table 5 reveals that 183 (37.3%) of the respondents

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Table 2. Agricultural Science as a reputable science course of study.

Departments

Total Response No. %

Possible Factors

Remark

AEE

ANS

CRS

SOS

FOW

FIS

VTE

Tedious nature of its practical

13

17

10

21

01

9

24

95

19.4

Reject

Lack of employment in the sector

16

24

18

19

17

4

6

104

21.2

Reject

31

59

32

20

42

67

40

291

59.4

Accept

60

100

60

60

60

80

70

490

100

Poor wage / capital income in the profession Total Respondents

Table 3. Youths in South-South and their feelings towards Agriculture.

Departments

Total Response No. % 254 51.8 236 48.2

Response YES NO Total Respondents

AEE 28 32

ANS 44 56

CRS 37 23

SOS 36 24

FOW 31 29

FIS 33 47

VTE 45 15

60

100

60

60

60

80

70

490

Remar k Accept Reject

100

Table 4. Possible reason for youths‟ negative feelings towards Agriculture.

Departments Response

Total Response No. % 89 35.0

Remark

AEE 11

ANS 16

CRS 14

SOS 9

FOW 10

FIS 12

VTE 17

1

5

3

4

2

-

5

20

7.9

Presence of other payable jobs in the zone

14

19

20

22

16

21

19

131

51.6

Accept

Others

2

4

-

1

3

-

4

14

5.5

Reject

Total Respondents

28

44

37

36

31

33

45

254

100

Poor societal value of famers Personal dislike of the profession

Reject Reject

supports the idea that Nigeria and the Nigerian society value Agriculture and its scientists the way they value other profession and their scientists while 307 (62.7%) of the sample disagrees. This shows that our government and society have a poor rating for agriculture and the various agricultural scientists. This contributes to the reasons Nigerians (mostly the youths) feel negative about the subject as a course of study and a career in the profession. Thus, poor government and societal value for agriculture are accepted as inhibiting factors towards the increase of Agricultural graduates, nationwide especially the youths in the South-South.

Research question 3: What are the inhibiting factors to the increase in the number of Agricultural science graduates nationwide? Various career theorists such as Donnermeyer and Kreps [3]; and Mitchell and Krumboltz [7] identified personal interest, parental influence, and future career/job opportunity as the major career influencers. Thus a need to justify these influencers in relation to Agriculture profession. *Question; Did personal interest influenced your career decision making?

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Table 5. Government/societal value for Agriculture.

Departments Response YES NO Total Respondents

AEE 29 31

ANS 53 47

CRS 30 30

SOS 12 48

FOW 24 36

FIS 25 55

VTE 10 60

60

100

60

60

60

80

70

Total Response No. % 183 37.3 307 62.7 490

Remark Reject Accept

100

Table 6. Personal interest.


AEE 59 1

ANS 99 1

CRS 60 --

SOS 57 3

FOW 60 --

FIS 78 2

VTE 66 4

60

100

60

60

60

80

70


Remark Accept Reject

100

Table 7. Personal interest and choice.


AEE 11 48

ANS 47 52

CRS 24 36

SOS 05 52

FOW -60

FIS 17 61

VTE -66

59

99

60

57

60

78

66



100

In Table 6, nearly all the sampled students 479 (97.8%) agree to personal interest as an influence in their career decision making process while 11 (2.2%) of the total number (490, 100%) of the students states otherwise.

South zone of Nigeria.

*Question; if YES above, did you choose Agricultural science as your first-choice course of study at the university?

The response from Table 8 reveals that 195 (39.8%) of the sample agrees that their parents did have influence on their choice of study course. While 295 (60.2%) disagrees. Therefore, from the study, parents have little or no influence on the choice of study course. Thus parental influence is not a factor.

In Table 7, it is observed that a shortfall of 21.7% (104) out of the 479 students who were influenced by personal interest in their career decision making process (Table 7) chose to study Agriculture as their first choice while as high as 78.3% (375 out of 479) did not chose the course as a study course at the point of enrollment into the university. This indicates that Agricultural science was not their first-choice course of study but where deflected from their first choice due to admission struggle in other fields of study, or other factors led them to consider agricultural science. Thus personal interest is accepted as a factor influencing the choice of Agricultural science as a study course in Nigerian universities, particularly in South-

*Question; Did your parents had any influence on your choice of study course/career?

*Question; Do future career and job opportunity have any influence on your choice of study/career? Data from Table 9 shows that 252 (51.4%) are influenced by career and job opportunity in their career decision making while 238 (48.6%) are open minded. It hereby accepted that anticipation for a job opportunity acts as an influence in career decision making. Therefore, future career and job opportunity is an influence in the increase of the number of Agricultural science graduates,

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Table 8. Parental influence.


AEE 04 56

ANS 39 61

CRS 28 32

SOS 38 22

FOW 23 37

FIS 34 46

VTE 29 41

60

100

60

60

60

80

70



100

Table 9. Future career/job opportunity influence.


AEE 44 16

ANS 58 42

CRS 33 27

SOS 29 31

FOW 34 26

FIS 40 40

VTE 14 56

60

100

60

60

60

80

70

nationwide.

RESULTS 1. Data on Table 2, reveals that Agriculture as a science and study course for future career in the profession lacks reputation due to lack of payable employment in the sector and Poor wage /capital income. 2. Nigerian youths (in South-South) feel negative towards agriculture as a means of livelihood in the country. 3. The poor interest/attitude by the government in developing the Agricultural sector is an inhibiting factor to the increase in the number of youths opting to study Agricultural science in universities. 4. Future career and job opportunity is an influence in the increase of the number of Agricultural science graduates, in South-South Nigeria. 5. Parents have no influence on students‟ career choice.

DISCUSSION The issue of reduced number of graduates in Agricultural science has become a contemporary problem in the Agricultural sector in the South-South zone and the Nigeria at large. In the analysis in Table 2, it can be deduced that Agriculture as a study course for future career lacks reputation due to lack of payable employment in the sector and mainly because of the presumed poor wage or capital return in the profession. It is believed that the interest to study a course at any level of education is to master the course and its sciences as well as to acquire skills and knowledge in order to gain employment in the corresponding


Remark Accept Reject

100

profession of the course of study [9]. Analysis of data in Tables 3 and 6, indicate that youths in the South-South zone of Nigeria feel negative towards the study and practice of agriculture due to the presence of other payable jobs in the zone. The South-South zone of Nigeria is home to most of Nigeria‟s petroleum industries. The presence of these companies is likely influencing the youths in the zone to study others courses other than agricultural science thus encouraging the shift of interest from agriculture to others fields of study. From the findings, it can be stated that studying Agricultural science at the university is affected and influenced mainly by personal interest, government / societal view towards agriculture. This probably explains the high number of students who enroll for Agricultural science in their O‟level but only as a makeup subject and not as a core subject for university study or future career. It was revealed that parents had no influence in the choosing of study course on the sampled students, thus the study rejects parental influence as a hindrances while upholding personal interest and future career/job opportunity as the major hindrances/influencers to increase in the number of students/graduates in Agricultural science in South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Conclusion and Recommendations Agriculture is important to the Nigerian economy as it engages about 70% of the labour force and contributes about 39.21% of the Gross Domestic product (GDP) [9,13]. Efforts should be made by the government and society to encourage youths in South-South Nigeria into the sector to boost production and help refocus the economy of the nation.

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Based on this conclusion, the researcher strongly suggests the establishment of Agricultural Students Scholarship Fund (ASSF). As observed by the researcher during the course of this study, some non-governmental companies in the zone usually grant scholarship to students of some universities in the zone and in some of them, Agricultural science students are not enlisted as beneficiaries to participate in the scholarship awarding process. The establishment of ASSF will boost the morale of students to choose and study Agriculture in the zone and in the country and address the issue of neglect. A national awareness programme should be conducted to reawaken the need for every Nigerian to go back to Agriculture to enhance food production as Nigeria remains an agrarian country. Furthermore, Agricultural science should be made a compulsory subject in O‟level rather than a makeup subject. This approach will further change the orientation of young secondary school leavers seeking admission into universities. Since agriculture remains the highest contributor to GDP ( 40.19% in 2011, 39.12% in 2012) [13], the researcher suggests the introduction of “General Agriculture” as General Studies (GST) into the curriculum of all fields of study in all universities in South-South Nigeria and across the country. This will help in resolving the negative attitude of the youths towards Agriculture, make Agricultural science more accepted by the youths and encourage the practice of Agriculture as a means of livelihood. REFERENCES [1] Ataha U. Clarence: basic concepts and practices in guidance and counseling. Fortune and temperance publishing co, 2006; pp 3-4. [2] Donnermeyer JF, Kreps GM. Assessing college of agriculture freshmen. NACTA J, 1994; 38(1): 45-48. [3] Eboh EC. Social and economic research principles and methods. Enugu, Nigeria: African Institute for Applied Economics. 2009. [4] Goecker AD, Whatley CM, Gilmore JL. Employment opportunities for college graduates in the food and agricultural science. United States Department of Agriculture and Purdue University. 1999. [5] Leven T. Ester: factor influencing post-secondary education enrollment behaviors of urban agricultural education students at Iowa state university. Career Tech Edu Res J, 2007; 32(2); 79-98. [6] National Bureau of Statistics. Gross domestic product for federal republic of Nigeria. Revised 2011 and estimates for q1- q4 2012. 2013; www.nigerianstat.gov.ng. [7] Mitchell LK, Krumboltz JD. Social Learning Approach to Career Decision Making; Career choice and development. Apply Contemp Theories Pract, 1990; 77(2); 115-124. [8] Okoh E. Effect of Edo State Agricultural Development Programme on the improvement of Rural Farmers. University of Nigeria, Nsukka. 2008.

[9] Okoh E. Theoretical and practical strategies in teaching and learning of agricultural science in Nigerian secondary schools. J Edu Health Technol Res (JEHERT), 2011; 2251-0087. [10] Torres RM, Wildman M. Factors identified when selecting a major in agriculture. J Agric Edu, 2001; 42(2): 46-55. [11] Federal Office of Statistics. Poverty and Agricultural Sector in Nigeria. Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) Abuja, Nigeria. 2012; pp 133. [12] Mars C. Anaekwe. Basic research methods ansd statistics. Edu Soc Sci, 2007; 978-35100-9-6. [13] Exams and Records Department. List of applicants for admission from 2005/2006 set to 2009/2010 set. University of Benin, 2010.